Upper crust? David Cameron admits he has no idea how much a sliced loaf of bread costs as he 'bakes his own with artisan flour'

David Cameron today admitted he did not know the price of a supermarket loaf of bread, saying he baked his own.

In an embarrassing setback for a premier keen to appear in touch with hard-pressed voters, the Prime Minister struggled to find an answer when asked how much a value loaf would cost.

He instead gushed about the delights of his Panasonic breadmaker and a special artisan flour from the Cotswolds that mean he wakes each morning to the “wonderful smell wafting through your kitchen”.

Just hours after Boris Johnson admitted on Newsnight that he did not know the price of a pint of milk, Mr Cameron was asked by LBC 97.3 radio presenter Nick Ferrari to name the price of a “value sliced white bread loaf at Tesco or Sainsbury’s this morning”. He replied hopefully: “It’s going to cost you over £1.” Reminded he was being asked about a basic value loaf, the PM confessed: “I don’t buy the value sliced loaf. I’ve got a breadmaker at home which I delight in using and it turns out in all sorts of different ways. But you can buy a loaf in the supermarket for well north of a pound.”

When told that the current price was just 47p, Mr Cameron went on: “Look, I’m trying to get my children to eat the sort of granary — and they take it actually, they like my home-made bread.”

Mr Cameron and George Osborne were once branded “posh boys who don’t know the price of milk” by Tory MP Nadine Dorries. Ed Miliband is campaigning hard on the allegation that Conservatives are “out of touch” with ordinary voters.

The Tory leader said he makes bread for his family and is fully at home in the kitchen. “A little plug for the flour made in my constituency — Cotswold Crunch — you get some of that, you pop that in your breadmaker. You set the timer overnight so when you wake up there is this wonderful smell wafting through your kitchen. I’d recommend the Panasonic. Very easy — even Nick Ferrari could work a Panasonic bread-maker.”

Labour said he seemed oblivious to the pressures on families turning to food banks for help.

Labour vice-chairman Michael Dugher said: “David Cameron is so out of touch, he is almost a parody of himself. Ordinary families are worse off every year thanks to his government.

“It comes as no surprise that he doesn’t buy a value loaf of bread.”

Mr Johnson was caught out on a similar question on Newsnight.

Asked by Jeremy Paxman: “Do you even know the cost of pint of milk?” he replied, “About 80p or something like that.”

Told that the right answer was 40p, he shrugged: “Well, there you go, I don’t know how much a pint of milk costs. So what?”

Mr Cameron insisted the Government had a good record on helping families. He said: “This Government has repeatedly frozen petrol duty — just as we have frozen the council tax, just as we have legislation to put people on the lowest electricity tariff.”